DAN ZELOS DOUBLES UP AS WILL ORTON HITS TROUBLE

Dan Zelos made it two wins from two with another lights-to-flag victory in the second Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE race of the weekend at Snetterton as main title rival Will Orton saw his impressive podium run come to an end.

Zelos had grabbed victory in Saturday’s opening race which meant he would start from pole position and the EXCELR8 driver once again got away well off the line to lead the way into Riches for the first time ahead of fellow front row starter Joe Tanner.

Behind, Bradley Gravett would once again get away well to make up ground and swept ahead of Orton going into turn one, with Orton then slipping to fifth before the end of the lap when Sam Weller got ahead on the run out of the final corner.

The lead duo would quickly break away from the pack behind as, in race one, the fight for victory became a cat-and-mouse battle between Zelos and Tanner.

Zelos would eek out a slender advantage on one lap only for Tanner to then come back at him next time out, with the gap between the pair only once going above a second.

Tanner was unable to get close enough to make a move however, with Zelos taking the flag to secure win number five of the campaign by six-tenths of a second.

“We got another good start and I had Joe on my tail again so it was like deja vu,” Zelos said. “It was all about managing the tyres when it was warmer today but we could push a bit and a got a gap which we could then manage.”

“Dan doesn’t make mistakes and he didn’t put a foot wrong again,” Tanner added. “I made a mega start but the problem was, so did he! He covered where he needed to to stop me getting ahead.”

The battle for third spot would be decided early, with Weller grabbing third from Gravett going through turn one with a forceful move at the start of the second lap; contact between the pair seeing Gravett run wide and drop back behind Nelson King and Orton. Oliver Meadows and Dominic Wheatley would also clear the EXCELR8 driver before the end of the lap, as Gravett slipped back to eighth spot.

Weller would remain in third spot through to the finish of the race – having started seventh after a post-race grid penalty from Saturday – with King in fourth after a lonely race that saw him largely running alone on track after Orton was forced to bring his car into the pits when debris off the circuit damaged the radiator.

That meant he logged his first DNF of the season, to slip behind Zelos in the points standings.

Instead, it was Gravett who took fifth spot as he recovered places as the race wore on, edging ahead of Wheatley on lap three and then Meadows on lap six, with his team-mate following him home across the line.

Thomas Jack Lee put in a strong drive from tenth on the grid to secure seventh, with impressive moves on both Lewis Selby and Wheatley as he came through with James Griffith following him through from eleventh to take eighth – with Wheatley and Lydia Walmsley rounding out the top ten.

The top four will be reversed on the grid for race three, meaning King will start on pole.

Aside from Orton, Jamie Osborne and Marlo Cordell both failed to finish, the latter after a clash with Steven Lake going into turn one that saw Lake excluded from the result.